System for enterprise-wide work flow automation

• US 20020059466A1
• Filed: 11/19/2001
• Published: 05/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Filenet Corporation (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Seidman, Glenn R., Waddington, Bruce A., Poindexter, Luen Kimball, Timm, Stephen R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,010,602 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are provided for a enterprise-wide work flow system that may encompass multiple geographically separate sites. The sites may be either permanently or transiently linked. A single computer network may accommodate multiple work flow systems and a single work flow system may be distributed over multiple local area networks. The system maintains the paradigm of one global queue per service and provides for individual work flow systems to export services to one another in an enterprise.

Claims

1. A method of providing services in a work flow system, comprising steps of:

providing a computer network;

defining a first work flow class, the first work flow class definition including definitions of classes of objects available within the work flow system and an identification of a service to be provided by an instance of the first work flow class; and

defining a second work flow class, the second work flow class including the first work flow class definition, the first work flow class definition providing a defined interface for accessing services provided by the instance of the first work flow class to an instance of the second work flow class.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising steps of:

instantiating an agent work object in the instance of the first work flow class responsive to receipt of a request from a work object in the instance of the second work flow class for a publicly available service;

transferring data from the work object to the agent work object;

processing the agent work object to provide the requested service; and

returning data to the work object.

3. A method of distributing objects within a work flow system, the method comprising steps of:

associating a partition expression with each potential destination of a work object within the work flow system;

evaluating each partition expression; and

distributing the work object to a destination responsive to the evaluated value of the corresponding partition expression.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of evaluating comprises evaluating a logical expression as a function of data fields within the work object.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of evaluating comprises evaluating a logical expression as a function of globally available data.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of distributing the work object further comprises a step of determining if more than one partition expression evaluates to a predetermined value.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising steps of:

selecting a destination responsive to the determination that more than one partition expression evaluates to the predetermined value; and

distributing the work object to the selected destination.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising a step of assigning each potential destination a weight.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of selecting a destination comprises randomly selecting a destination wherein the probability of selecting a destination is proportional to the weight of the destination relative to the weights of all destinations having a partition expression that evaluates to the predetermined value.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of selecting a destination comprises selecting the destination having the lowest cost responsive to the destinations having partition expressions that evaluate to the predetermined value also having equal weights.

11. A method of distributing objects within a work flow system, the method comprising steps of:

providing a predetermined partition table, the partition table comprising a plurality of entries, each one of the plurality of entries including a partition expression and a destination associated with an evaluated value of the partition expression;

evaluating the partition expression for each of the plurality of entries;

selecting one of the plurality of entries responsive to the value of the partition expression for that entry evaluating to a predetermined value; and

distributing the object to the destination associated with the selected one of the plurality of entries.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of selecting one of the plurality of entries comprises randomly selecting one of the plurality of entries.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising a step of providing each one of the plurality of entries in the partition table a weighting factor;

and wherein the step of randomly selecting one of the plurality of entries comprises randomly selecting one of the plurality of entries in proportion to the weighting factors.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the steps of circulating, selectively embarking, and selectively debarking are repeated at least once.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the at least one computer is further programmed to associate with the first and second routines first and second weights, respectively, and wherein one of the first and second routines is selected responsive to the first and second weights.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the at least one computer is programmed to randomly select one of the first and second routines in proportion to the first and second weights.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the at least one computer is programmed to select the first routine responsive to the first and second weights being equal and the first routine having a lower cost.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the first and second routines are executing on the same computer.

21. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the first and second routines are executing on different computers.

14. A method of distributing an object in a computer environment comprising a plurality of interconnected computer networks, wherein the object is to be sent from a local network to a remote network, the method comprising the steps of:

providing each computer network with a queue for storing objects destined for the remote network;

circulating a load balancing work object through the interconnected computer networks such that the load balancing work object visits each of the networks at least once;

selectively embarking information relating to work objects stored in the queue into the load balancing work object when the load balancing work object visits the local network; and

selectively debarking information relating to work objects from the load balancing work object when the load balancing work object visits the remote network.

16. Apparatus for processing data comprising:

a plurality of computers interconnected to form a computer network, wherein the plurality of computers are programmed with first and second routines to process the data; and

at least one computer programmed to associate with each one of the first and second routines a logical expression, to select one of the first and second routines responsive to the associated logical expression being true, and sending the data to the selected routine.